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Post by deuce on Aug 23, 2016 11:42:15 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2016 9:20:31 GMT -5
Listened to this last night, very interesting. Cromcast have done a really good job covering the REH tales.
I'd like to hear some more from Rusty. Hopefully they'll invite him back soon.
Thanks Deuce.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2016 18:50:05 GMT -5
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Post by robp on Dec 7, 2016 6:36:52 GMT -5
+1 for the Cromcast, they have been doing some good work
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Post by johnnypt on Oct 13, 2017 9:01:35 GMT -5
Farnsworth's rejection of MotS is interesting. He admits to liking the beginning, but says it ends up simply being a "history of a people". Could it have also been something even more simple that he didn't want to say to a fairly new contributor: Bob, I just accepted this story from you, it's called the Lost Race. Now later similarities between several of the Conan stories to each other didn't stop him from taking them, but he was a regular and Conan was a popular character for WT. But at this point in his career, Wright may have thought it's better to turn this one back to get REH to branch out a bit more. I wonder if he'd sent it back in, say, 1931 after KotN, with a little bit of polish on it, if it may have had a better chance of being accepted.
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Post by johnnypt on Nov 10, 2017 8:46:18 GMT -5
As I mentioned on another thread, I just reread the BMM Del Rey. I'd forgotten Wright had mentioned how much he liked the story in the letter but didn't ask for a revision. I'm guessing he thought there wasn't much that could happen to ramp up the dramatic tension. I think the story works fine as it is, there's enough action at the beginning to carry it through. Possibly one more battle with the Romans at the end could've tipped the scales. I have to think the similarities to Lost Race had to have played a part in its rejection, but he didn't want to say so. Even so, maybe he could've scheduled it in 1928, considering it took 2 years for Lost Race to appear. Oh well, at least it got printed eventually...
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Post by Jason Aiken on Jul 28, 2020 21:53:29 GMT -5
I had a little down time this afternoon and was in the mood for some historical action so I rad "Men of the Shadows" in the Del Rey collection and am glad I did. Reading this thread and Rusty Burke's introduction I was aware that Wright rejected this, but I can see why. It's kind of a weird hybrid between a short story and a fictional history of the Pictish Race, a laser-focused version of REH's Hyborian Age essay in a way. Maybe hybrid isn't quite the right word, it started out as a short story, then turned into an info dump (albeit a well done one) via the wizard and then it ended. I found myself liking the story a good bit up until Bran and the Wizard took over and the info dump commenced. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the whole story from a historical point of view in terms of REH's world building, but I still wanted to see what happened to the Roman Norseman, too and how he made out. Speaking of which...this seems a little early for the Roman Legions to have Norsemen among their ranks, no? I have to admit I'm not a historian and would never pretend to be one, but when it was revealed the narrator was a Norseman my brain took a second or two to register it. It just seemed a bit off. Now if he had been labeled as Germanic, no problem there, even I know that much  |
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Post by johnnypt on Jul 29, 2020 8:36:05 GMT -5
I had a little down time this afternoon and was in the mood for some historical action so I rad "Men of the Shadows" in the Del Rey collection and am glad I did. Reading this thread and Rusty Burke's introduction I was aware that Wright rejected this, but I can see why. It's kind of a weird hybrid between a short story and a fictional history of the Pictish Race, a laser-focused version of REH's Hyborian Age essay in a way. Maybe hybrid isn't quite the right word, it started out as a short story, then turned into an info dump (albeit a well done one) via the wizard and then it ended. I found myself liking the story a good bit up until Bran and the Wizard took over and the info dump commenced. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the whole story from a historical point of view in terms of REH's world building, but I still wanted to see what happened to the Roman Norseman, too and how he made out. Speaking of which...this seems a little early for the Roman Legions to have Norsemen among their ranks, no? I have to admit I'm not a historian and would never pretend to be one, but when it was revealed the narrator was a Norseman my brain took a second or two to register it. It just seemed a bit off. Now if he had been labeled as Germanic, no problem there, even I know that much Looking at your comments and seeing what I said (three years ago already!), the lack of an ending where the information from Plotpoint the Exposition Wizard is put to any kind of use is a big deficit. Team that up with the Lost Race similarities and it gets pushed to the side. I can imagine FW going "If he's not going to give me an ending, it's not up to me to tell him to do one", and onto the next story in the pile. At least Lost Race had a payoff, albeit a little bit of a silly one, looking back. Bob was soon able to stick the landings pretty good. |
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Post by Jason Aiken on Jul 29, 2020 17:57:20 GMT -5
Looking at your comments and seeing what I said (three years ago already!), the lack of an ending where the information from Plotpoint the Exposition Wizard is put to any kind of use is a big deficit. Team that up with the Lost Race similarities and it gets pushed to the side. I can imagine FW going "If he's not going to give me an ending, it's not up to me to tell him to do one", and onto the next story in the pile. At least Lost Race had a payoff, albeit a little bit of a silly one, looking back. Bob was soon able to stick the landings pretty good. Defintely. I'm not normally one to give Wright a pass but I think he was justified in this case. I had to flip back and double check I didn't miss something. Agreed regarding REH's endings. I can't remember reading another yarn of his where I didn't feel as though he gave us a sufficient one. |
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